The present disclosure generally relates to computer-based techniques for categorizing financial transactions. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a computer-based technique for categorizing financial transactions based on customer spending-pattern cohorts.
A wide variety of features in financial software can be enabled by assigning a financial transaction of a user to a predefined category (which is referred to as ‘categorizing’ the financial transaction). For example, by automatically categorizing the financial transaction for the user, manual entry of this information can be avoided. Moreover, once the financial transaction has been assigned to a predefined category, it may be easier to generate graphical and tabular summaries of the user's financial activity. In addition, information about categorized financial transactions can be leveraged by third parties (such as banks or financial institutions) that provide financial services, such as targeting of financial services to particular individuals based on the categorized financial transactions. Consequently, categorized financial transactions can improve the user experience when using the financial software and/or may comprise valuable information for the third parties.
However, it is often difficult to categorize financial transactions. For example, the information associated with a financial transaction (such as information included on a credit- or debit-card receipt) often does not uniquely specify a predefined category. Instead, a fragment or abbreviated name of a counterparty in the financial transaction may match several predefined categories. This ambiguity may degrade the usefulness of categorizing financial transactions.